























r^Q^ 



'bV 



'^o^ 










^S'^^^^ 
. ,/ ^ 

















^McS 



.0 -i^ %^i4:^,* -^^^ 






.•*°* 



••• 




























AN 



ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED 



ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1836, 



AT PINE STREET CHURCH, BOSTON, 



IN THE MORNING, AND 



AT SALEM, IN THE AFTERNOON. 



[BY REQUEST OF THE FRIENDS TO THE IMMEDIATE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.] 



BY CHARLES FITCH, 

Pastor of the Free Congregational Church, Boston. 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY ISAAC KNAPP, 

4G, WASHINGTON STREET. 

1836. 






[PUBLISHED BY REaUEST.] 



ADDRESS 



'We hold it to be self-evident, that god has cre- 
ated ALL MEN EQUAL, AND ENDOWED THEM WITH CER- 
TAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, AND THAT AMONG THESE 
RIGHTS, ARE LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAP- 
PINESS.' 

That is my text — and if ever one sentence was written in 
the English language, which expresses more than any other, 
the true spirit of those who would abolish slavery throughout 
the world, it seems to me to be this. It comprises just every- 
thing for which abolitionists contend. It covers the whole 
ground, and reaches the farthest possible extent of all their 
avowed principles, and of all the measures which they con- 
template, or which they desire to see used, for the deliverance 
of their fellow-men who are held in chains. 

Nothing ever was said, nothing ever was written, which 
aimed more directly to the entire and eternal destruction of the 
institution of slavery than this. 

You might gather up all the anti-slavery papers and books, 
under which our Post Masters and Southern mail carriers have 
groaned so piteously ; and at which Southern slaveholders have 
uttered such cries of distress ; and add to them all the speech- 
es of George Thompson on both sides of the Atlantic ; and 



all the fire and fury of William Lloyd Garrison ; with every 
published number of the Liberator, and Emancipator, and New 
York Evangelist ; and every sentence that has ever been utter- 
ed by the whole company of fugitives from the Lane Seminary; 
and every thing that ever has been or ever will be said by J. 
G. Birney, in his Philanthropist ; and all the speeches of Ger- 
rit Smith, since his conversion ; in short, every thing that has 
ever been said, or written, or thought, by any man or woman 
that has dared open a mouth, or peep, on the subject of imme- 
diate emancipation, and steep them all together, and if you 
please, pass them all through deacon Giles' distillery, by his 
very best set of hands ; and you will not be able to extract 
from them, by any process or system of torture, any more di- 
rect, thorough-going, unshrinking abolitionism than is here 
brought to view. Just let the principles contained in this one 
sentence, prevail throughout the world, and slavery is dead, and 
buried, and consumed, and its dust scattered to the winds. 

Just listen to it, ' We hold it to be self-evident, that God 
has created all men equal, and endowed them with certain un- 
alienable rights, and that among these rights, are life, hberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness.' 

Excellent — just the thing for which the abolitionist pleads, 
and is just every thing he asks. Let the light of that single 
sentence go over the land, and shine on every mind, and warm 
every heart, and slavery with its lengthened train of concomi- 
tant evils, would take fire and be consumed. 

But who dared utter such a sentence .'' Did it fall from the 
lips of some hair-brained young man ; some beardless advocate 
of the incendiary doctrine, that men ought to do right, and 
risk the consequences ? Not at all. It was deliberately 
discussed, and at length declared, by solemn vote of a company 
of cool grey-heads, met in council, to assert their own rights 



and the rights of their country, in the ears of the world. It is 
a part, in short, of the Declaration of American Independence 
— that glorious instrument, which has heen read hy a thousand 
voices, in the ears of listening multitudes, every Fourth of 
July, for the last fifty years. 

The glorious Declaration of American Independence, of which 
every citizen of these United States has been so proud, con- 
tains this very sentence. It even stands at the head of it, as 
the starting point, the grand reason of all the toils and sufler- 
ings of our fathers, to throw off wdiat they regarded as the 
yoke of oppression. This bold and fearless declaration of 
the equal rights of men, stands imprinted upon the escutcheon of 
our country, in letters which the world may read. Yet while 
we ])resent it to the eyes of all mankind, and make it our 
glory to urge it upon their attention, as the grand principle, 
the standing rule by which we are determined to live, and in 
defence of which we mean to die, we bind two and a half mil- 
lions of our fellow-men in chains. We declare that they have 
been created with rights equal to ours, that our Maker endow- 
ed them with the same rich inheritance which he has given us; 
and then we strip them of all their rights, and make them, so 
far as we can do it, beasts, instead of men. We declare, that 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness belong to them inalienably, 
as the gift of God, and then we put a yoke on their neck, a 
fetter on their heel, and apply the scourge to their back, and 
wrench from them the fruit of all their toil. Such is America, 
in the eye of the world. 

Were I to draw a picture of the exact attitude in which our 
country stands before the nations of the earth ; I would show 
you a man standing erect, his head uplifted as if conscious of 
much dignity and self-importance, wearing a crown of large 
dimensions, on which should be emblazoned, in letters of gold, 



the sentence which I have ah-eady repeated : ' We hold it to 
be self-evident, that God has created all men equal, and en- 
dowed them with certain unalienable rights, and that among 
these rights, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' In 
one hand I would have him hold a chained slave, and in the 
other a scourge ; his poor defenceless victim, cowering with 
fear, and writhing under the smart of the lash. In the back 
ground, I would represent a slave market, in which should 
be grouped, a company of half clad men, women, and child- 
ren, weeping at the thought of everlasting separation from all 
they held dear; the auctioneer upon his stand, crying out, ' who 
bids,' and a company of purchasers, clothed in rich ap- 
parel, each wearing on his head a declaration of equal rights 
of men, and in the act of naming the sum he would give 
for a slave. On the other hand, might be seen, in the dis- 
tance, a cotton plantation, with its usual number of men and 
women, toiling with uncovered heads, under the burning sun ; 
among whom should stand, the overseer, with extended 
scourge, wearing also on his head, the declaration of equal 
rights. 

It seems to me, that here might be a scene for the genius of 
a West. 

I could w'ish that such a picture were drawn, and poor as 
I am, and as I expect always to remain, I would be willing to 
give something, to have it hung up in the parlor, and if you 
please, on the back of every slaveholder in the land. It seems 
to me, that it might do something to show him how supremely 
ridiculous he looks in the eyes of the v/orld ; and how inex- 
pressibly wicked is his conduct, while with his lips he declares, 
that men are born with equal rights, inheriting them from the 
common Author of their being, and at the same time, enslaves 
and brutalizes his fellow-man, and grinds him down to the 



earth, with a load of wrongs, which no language under heaven 
has power fully to describe. 

But it is my design to direct your thoughts to certain truths, 
which grow directly out of the principle which I have named 
as my text. 

1. If God has created all men equal ; then, the fact that He 
has created some with black skin, woolly hair, flat nose and 
long heels, does not prove that he made them for slaves. The 
only question is, are they men ? What makes men ? It is 
not the color of the skin : if so, it is impossible to tell who are 
and who are not men ; for the human complexion presents 
every variety of hue. It is not the shape of the features, for 
these are as various as the individuals of the race. Nor is it, 
for the same reason, the limbs, or any thing else that pertains 
to these mortal bodies, that makes us men: it is the spirit with- 
in that constitutes manhood. Aside from this, we all are 
brutes. 

We claim then, that our brethren of color, are men — not 
because they look, and walk, and eat, and sleep as men — but 
because they show us the workings of an immortal soul ; be- 
cause they think, and feel, and love, and hate, and suffer, and 
rejoice as men. Being men, therefore, God has made them 
with the same rights that he has given other men ; and he who 
will not allow them these rights, is a transgressor of that law 
which says, ' Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.' 

The consciences of some slaveholders have taught them, that 
they cannot, without guilt, hold men in bondage ; and they 
have, therefore, tried to cajole themselves into the belief, that 
men of color have no souls. 

I know a woman of color, who had the happiness, through 
the blessing of God, to escape from bondage, out of one of 
the slaveholding States. This woman said, that she had been 



8 

taught by those who held her in slavery, that she had no soul ; 
and, accordingly, when she had sometimes expressed a wish to 
go where the gospel was to be preached, she was told, that she 
need give herself no concern about such matters ; for, as she 
had no soul, preaching could do her no good. She believed, 
however, that she had a soul, and when placed where she could 
hear the gospel, and with none to lay their commands on her, 
and keep her away from the house of God, she became a reg- 
ular attendant on the word of life, and soon embraced the way 
of salvation, by Christ, as a plan of redemption adapted to her 
case ; and gave interesting evidence of having become a child 
of God. 

I read a fact of this sort but the other day. A lady who 
was lying upon her death bed, in great agony of spirit, knowing 
that she was not prepared to die, said to her female slave, who 
was attending her, ' how thankful you ought to be that you have 
no soul : you can die without these tormenting fears.' Very 
likely among the fears of this dying woman, was that of meet- 
ing the deserved indignation of God, for holding his immortal 
creatures in bondage ; and therefore, in some measure, to quiet 
these fears, she still labored to make herself believe, that those 
whom she had thus injured were not immortal. 

Thus, even slaveholders, with all their hardness of heart, 
show sometimes, at least, that they are sensible that men ou^hi 
not to be enslaved : and hence the effort to rid themselves of a 
sense of guilt, by trying to believe that their injured victims 
are but brutes. It is clear to every man's understanding, that 
men have equal rights, and that he, therefore, who holds his 
fellow-man enslaved, is a monster of iniquity. 

2. If God has created all men equal, then the fact, that a man's 
mother, or his mother's great grand mother, was stolen from 
the coast of Africa, and sold into perpetual slavery, does not 



9 

prove that he is the property of the man, or of a descendant 
of the man by whom his maternal ancestor was at first enslaved. 
Tills is tlic tenure by which slaves arc holden. He who claims 
the mother, claims the children. Now just look at this. Be- 
cause several generations ago, the woman from whom I chanc- 
ed to descend, was forcibly torn from her home and country, 
and sold into bondage, ending only with life ; therefore, I, as a 
man, have no rights, but must submit to be trainpled on, and 
beaten, and stripped of all I hold dear ; — driven to hard labor 
from early dawn till late at night, and all my earnings prostitut- 
ed to the lazy, luxurious ease of a worthless wretch, who never 
made the world one whit the better by having a place in it, and 
who probably never will. That all this is literally true, in a 
great multitude of cases, nobody can doubt ; and if this is not 
as black injustice, and cruelty as base as the devil ever instigated 
wicked men to practice, then, pray let us know what is worse, 

I know there are many, who mean to be considered among 
the better sort of slaveholders, who think, by kindness, to make 
up to their slaves what they forcibly withhold from them. But 
it seems to me, that I could regard' it as nothing better than 
adding insult to injury, for a tyrant, after having stripped me 
of all the rights of manhood, to think to atone for the wrongs 
he was daily inflicting upon me, by a few kind words now and 
then, and some few efforts to render my wretched condition, in 
some measure, endurable. 

I said a tyrant, and I wish to have it fully understood, that I 
consider the best slaveholder on earth, a tyrant. A tyrant is a 
man who forcibly deprives another man of his rights — and such 
is every slaveholder on the footstool. 

But to the point. I say again, if God has given men equal 
rights, according to the Declaration of American Independence, 
then the wrongs inflicted on my mother cannot take away my 



10 

rights ; and the fact, that she was forcibly made a slave, does 
not prove that I am not a man. 

But go to the slaveholder, and ask him ; on what ground do 
you call these men and women your slaves ? and he replies ; 
why, just because their mothers were slaves : and when he has 
said this, he thinks, as it would seem, that he has given the best 
of all reasons in the world for his claim. And so, just because 
my mother was most shamefully abused all her life long, there- 
fore I have no right to anything better. Sound reasoning, truly. 
The slave is a man, and nothing in the condition of any being 
from whom he descended, can deprive him of the rights of a 
man ; and he who withholds these rights from him, does it with 
the same outright injustice and cruelty, as though I, or any man 
who hears me, were stripped of the rights of men, and sold into 
hopeless and perpetual servitude, this very day. 

3. If all men were created equal, then no man can make me 
his property, by paying his money to a villain, who had depriv- 
ed me of my rights. You call the horse thief a villain ; but 
when he takes your horse and sells him to another man, does he 
cease to be your horse because somebody else has paid money 
for stolen property ? Not in the least. He is your property 
still — and you have a right to him, and can take him ; though 
another has paid for him ten times or twenty times what he is 
worth. And if your horse is yours, after having been stolen and 
sold, are you not your own ? Are not your hands and feet and 
head your own ? Do they cease to be yours, just because some- 
body has chosen to pay money, for the privilege of holding you 
in bondage ? 

But it is admitted, I believe, in all slaveholding States, that 
when a man takes another who was before free, and sells him 
into slavery, he commits a crime, and is punishable. But the 
Declaration of American Independence claims, that all men are 



11 

equally free, and that they receive this freedom from the God 
who made them — and so says common sense, and common hon- 
esty, and so says every dictate of humanity, and every principle 
of the religion of Jesus Christ ; and nothing in the condition of 
a man's forefathers, or foremothers, can make him otherwise than 
a man, endowed by high heaven, from whom he received his 
being, with all the rights of man. 

But if it is WTong to take a man before free, and make him a 
slave ; then it is wrong to hold any man under heaven as a 
slave. The fact that his rights have hitherto been withholden 
from him, does not prove that these rights are not his from this 
time henceforth ; and though a man may have paid to another 
his house full of silver and gold for my rights, they are my rights 
still ; and he is a detestable tyrant who touches them, because 
he has the power to do so : and what is true of my rights, is 
true of every other man's riglits, black or white. 

4. If God created men equal, then the man who has hitherto 
claimed me as his property, is bound at once to relinquish his 
claim, and give up to me the control of myself; without remu- 
neration. He has no more property in me, than I have in him, 
and can have none. If he has paid his money for me, though 
the sum be ever so great, I have not been benefited by it, and 
of course am laid under no obligation. 

Among the better class of slaveholders are some, who think 
they have done a deed exceedingly meritorious, when they 
have granted a man his liberty, after he had paid over to them 
certain hundreds of dollars, which tiiey paid for him to some- 
body else ; or which he would now be worth in market as a 
slave. But suppose, my hearers, that any body should propose 
to us, to give up to us our rights as men, after we had paid over 
to him some eight hundred or a thousand dollars, for the privi- 
lege of calling our hands and feet our own. How would we 



12 

regard such a proposition ? And if it would be wrong in the 
case of either of us, then it would be wrong in the case of 
every other man, black or white ; because it is self-evident that 
God has created all men equal. 

When a man buys a slave for the express purpose of setting 
him at liberty, it may be right for him, after receiving his liber- 
ty, to pay what was paid for him. Though the man who re- 
ceived the money had no right whatever to take it, yet it having 
been paid as an act of kindness to the slave, and expressly for 
his benefit ; he who paid it, may justly receive it at the hand of 
him whom he has set at liberty. This act of emancipation, 
however, ought by no means to be deferred until the money 
paid for his ransom is earned. I can have no right to hold a 
man in bondage for an hour. If I purchase his liberty, I am 
bound to give it to him at once, and then if he remunerates me 
let him do it as a man, and not as a slave. 

I know It is the custom, to some extent, among those who 
would choose to be regarded as very conscientious and benevo- 
lent men, to buy slaves, and hold them in bondage until they 
have earned the money paid for them, and then set them free. 
But it is at best a wicked practice, though followed even by 
ministers of the gospel, and those too of sufficient eminence to 
have their names lengthened by a D. D. No man under heaven 
has, or can have, a right on any ground whatever, to call anoth- 
er man his property, even during the twinkling of an eye. If a 
man is purchased from bondage, he ought instantaneously to have 
his freedom, with all the rights of a man ; and then let him, 
prompted as he would be by every feeling of generosity and 
gratitude, do his utmost, suitably to recompense his deliverer. 
But it is degrading, and flagrantly unjust, to purchase a man as 
a thing, and then hold him In the contemptible condition of a 
thing, until he can earn money to buy himself into the privilege 



13 

of being a man. Whether practiced in high places or low, 
among the worldly or in the church of Christ ; it is at best a 
flagrant outrage on humanity, and ought to be despised by all 
who lay claim to the feelings of men. 

5. If God created all men equal, then no one man, can have 
a right to subject another to his will, through pretence that he is 
unable to take care of himself. This seems to be a plea in the 
mouth of a multitude of slaveholders ; that as their slaves are in- 
capable of providing for themselves, it is therefore right that 
they should possess them as their property, like so many cattle 
or swine. Even those who claim to be the best friends of the 
slave, are very ready to say that he ought not to have bis liberty, 
until he has first learned how to conduct himself when free. 
Now I can ascribe to those who hold this notion, just about as 
much good sense, as I would to the mechanic, who should refuse 
to place tools in the hands of his apprentice, until he had learn- 
ed to use them ; or as a distinguished abolitionist once said in 
my hearing, it is like the Irish mother, who would not permit 
her boy to go into the water, until he had learned to swim. The 
truth is — freedom is an element, in which the poor slave has 
never been permitted to live — and never can he know, or be 
taught how to demean himself as a man, until you first make a 
man of him. He is a thing now, subjected to the will of anoth- 
er, and acts as he is acted upon ; and never can you teach him 
how to use his own will aright, until you first give him the irriv- 
ilege of using it. At any rate, there is no power this side of 
the throne of God, which has a right, or which can by any 
means acquire a right, to say that the slave shall not this moment 
have his liberty and enjoy it, until by crime he forfeits claim to 
the preservation of his privileges as a man. 

But the plea that the slave would be unable when set at lib- 
erty to provide for himself, is, in a vast multitude of 'cases, un- 



14 

questionably false, I like the remark of the colored youth in 
the Lane Seminary, who was once a slave. ' It is claimed/ 
said he, ' that we would be unable to support ourselves when 
set at liberty ; and I cannot tell how that might be, but as it is, 
I know that we do support ourselves and those who enslave us in 
addition.' All this is literally true, and it seems to me, that if 
they can support themselves, and their masters, and their mas- 
ters' households while enslaved, they might possibly take care of 
themselves, when permitted to enjoy their inherent and inalien- 
able rights. 

If the slave, however, by being kept in bondage, has been held 
disqualified to provide for himself, then it is the duty of the man 
who has enslaved him, after setting him at liberty, to provide 
for him, at least, until he can be instructed how to provide for 
himself. All this would be only restoring what he has taken 
away. The cry is often raised by those who seem to consider 
it a sort of knock-down reply to all the arguments of abolition- 
ists ; what ! would you have the slaves turned loose, in all their 
poverty, and rags, and wretchedness, to stroll from place to 
place and beg their bread or starve ? By no means. We ad- 
vocate no such measures. We are neither such fanatics or in- 
cendiaries as to desire any thing of this sort. On the contrary, 
we believe that those who have hitherto held men enslaved, and 
consequently kept them in all this poverty and wretchedness, 
are bound, first to set them at liberty, and then provide for their 
maintenance, at least, until they are capable of looking out for 
themselves. It would be marvellous justice, indeed, at this time, 
after all their wrongs, to kick them out of doors, like a worn out 
horse or a useless dog, to live or die, hap-hazard, without home 
or friends or employment. The slaveholder is bound by every 
principle of justice and humanity, to restore all he has taken 
away or withholden. He has deprived his slaves of liberty — 



15 

the first right of man. Let him restore this first. He has with- 
holden knowledge. Let him furnish them with means of in- 
struction. Let him teach them husbandry and the mechanic 
arts, and see that they have opportunity to make such scientific 
acquirements, as shall prepare them to act their parts with re- 
spectability and usefulness among their fellow-men. Let him 
furnish them with employment at reasonable wages, and teach 
them how to appropriate their earnings to the best advantage for 
their own good. All this would be but paying an honest debt, 
and would be doing no more than every slaveholder in the land 
is bound jay every principle of justice to set himself about, this 
very hour. 

But perhaps the slaveholder would say, ' It would take all I 
am worth to do what you propose.' Then I would just say to 
him, you are not worth a farthing. Everything you have, is 
justly due to those whom you have hitherto held as slaves ; and 
you are in justice bound to appropriate it at once for their bene- 
fit. It's an honest debt, and if you refuse to pay it, you are a dis- 
honest man. 

But perhaps he would say, ' I could not do for my slaves what 
you propose, unless I were to labor with my hands for their sup- 
port.' Very well, I would reply to him ; then you ought to go 
to work at once. They have labored long and hard to support 
you, and one good turn deserves another. They are under no 
more obligation to you as men, than you to them ; and since 
they have been laboring for your support, it is but right that you 
should return the favor. 

But the slaveholder might still say, ' the laws of the State, 
in which I reside, would not allow me to set my slaves at liber- 
ty.' Well, if slaveholders can make such laws, they can re- 
peal them, and ought to do it forthwith. But though they remain 
unrepealed, I think a slaveholder in this day, need not be over- 



16 

niucli rii;hteous in obeying human laws. If a man suspected of 
being a friend of the slave, enters a slaveholding State, he must 
be taken and subjected to every species of indignity — perhaps 
whipped at the stake, and perhaps, without law or judge or jury, 
condemned and executed. There is already a defiance of all 
law among them, and the man therefore who is disposed to do 
justice by his slaves, need be no great stickler for the observance 
of human enactments. 

But no human laws can set aside the laws of God. He has 
said to every slaveholder, ' Thou shall love thy neighbor as 
thyself,' and though ten thousand human laws were made in 
opposition to this, no man on earth has a right to obey them j 
nor can he do it without defying his God. The slaveholder is 
bound to do justice to his slaves in defiance of human laws if 
they are against him, and any other course must subject him to 
the displeasure of the Most High. 

But must he do right and risk the consequences ? It is very- 
plain that he must do right and risk the consequences, or else 
do wi'ong and risk the consequences. There is not another al- 
ternative: and though the immediate consequences of doing 
right might be unpleasant, yet in the end they are infinitely 
preferable to the consequences of doing wrong. The law of 
God is calling on the slaveholder to do justice, and if he gives 
no heed to the call, consequences are coming at which he might 
well tremble. 

But here, possibly, would approach a nmltitude, clothed in 
the vestments of the church of Christ, and with the Bible in 
their hands, claim that slavery is a divine institution, and quote 
scripture to prove it. ' God permitted the Israelites to hold 
slaves, therefore it is right for us.' They might as well say, 
Solomon, King of Israel, had seven hundred wives, and three 
hundred concubines ; therefore it is right for us to have as many 



17 

if we choose. Or they might say again, the Israehtes slew the 
inhabitants of the land of Canaan, therefore it is right for us to 
put our enemies to death whenever we can. 

The truth on the subject is this. Tiie Canaanitish nations 
were devoted to destruction by the God who made them. He 
therefore gave a special commission to the Israelites, to go and 
put to death men, women and children, and possess themselves 
of their country. For the same reason, they were permitted 
to hold them as bond servants. It was a judgment from God 
upon the inhabitants of Canaan. But that God ever gave his 
permission to any thing like the system of American Slavery, 
is something that wants proof. It was by a special direction of 
heaven, that they were to buy bondmen, and bondmaids of the 
heathen. And when the slaveholders of the South can show 
the same authority for binding their fellow men, then it will be 
time enough to admit that they are doing right. But never, un- 
til they can show a special enactment, sent down fresh from the 
Supreme Legislator of the Universe, giving them express per- 
mission to hold the African race in slavery, ought they to be re- 
garded in any other light than as outrageously wicked — as the 
basest among base men. They have no more authority from 
Scripture, for enslaving the Africans, than the Africans have for 
enslaving them. 

But it will be said again ' that even the New Testament 
sanctions Slavery, because it lays down rules of conduct for 
such as are in that condition.' The spirit of the New Testa- 
ment, would unquestionably direct every slave, to submit pa- 
tiently to the evils of his condition, to be a faithful servant while 
he must, and never to attempt avenging himself, but to leave 
his wrongs with Him who has said ' vengeance is mine, I will 
repay,' and there is no abolitionist who would not give every 

slave this same advice. No where does either the New or 
3 



18 

Old Testament teach the slave that he has not a right to his 
liberty. On the contrary, Paul, whose authority is quoted by 
the advocates of slavery, directs those who are in bonds to pre- 
fer freedom. ' If thou may est be made free, use it rather. Art 
thou called being a servant, care not for it ; ' i. e. submit to it. 
So say I — and so says every friend of the slave. Submit to it, 
while you must, but prefer freedom, and look to God for it. 
But 1 would like to know, where there is a principle or a pre- 
cept in the Bible, which gives one man a right to enslave another, 
or which prohibits the free from seeking the immediate eman- 
cipation of such as are bound ? 

I insist upon it, that the case of the Israelites has no more to 
do, in establishing the rectitude of slavery among us, than their 
promiscuous slaughter of the Canaanites would have, in justi- 
fying an offensive war with any nation with whom we are now at 
peace ; or than the practices of Solomon, in justifying all the 
fornication and adultery of the present age. 

6. If God has created all men equal, then those w^ho enjoy 
the rights of freemen, are bound by the principles of God's 
government, to do all in their power, for the deliverance of such 
as are bound. ' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' ' Re- 
member them that are in bonds as bound with them.' ' As ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.' Let 
us, then, my hearers, place ourselves, for one moment, in the 
condition of the slave. We are in bondage for life, without hope 
of deliverance. We are driven all the live-long, day through 
fear of the lash, to hard labor, from the beginning to the end of 
the year. Our allowance is a peck of corn-meal in a week, 
with a small quantity of meat — and the whole sum paid annu- 
ally to meet all our expenses of food and clothing, is from twen- 
ty-five to fifty dollars. If we enter the marriage relation, 
it is, at best, a marriage not legalized by the statutes of the 



19 

land, and the object of our affections may, at any moment, be 
torn from our arms forever, and driven by the lash, we know 
not where, to be thrown into the possession of another, or, per- 
iiaps, subjected to the brutallustsof some monster, without means 
of redress. Our children are beaten and abused before our 
eyes, or taken from us and sold to cruelty and hopeless servitude. 
Often we smart under the lash, and when every limb trembles 
with pain, we are driven still on to toil. When ' Tired na- 
ture's sweet restorer, balmy sleep,' comes for our relief, we are 
driven up, unrefreshed, to begin our sufferings anew. If we 
attempt to escape, we are hunted down with dogs and guns, and 
writhe under the scourge, just so long as cruelty and rage please 
to stand by and give direction to lay it upon us. Even 
though put to death — and twenty of our brethren of unimpeach- 
able characters witness the deed — there is no law by which our 
murderers can be brought to justice — and if under all our heavy 
woes, we dare assert our rights, or lift a finger in self defence, 
we are exposed to any cruelty, even to death, with none to heed 
our sufferings, or offer us relief That all this is true in the con- 
dition of every slave, I do not claim ; but that all this, and more, 
is true in ten thousand cases, nobody doubts. Suppose then, 
my hearers, that all these sufferings were ours ; what would we 
have those do for us, who knew our wretchedness, while they 
were enjoying all the rights and privileges of freemen 1 Would 
we desire them to hold their peace, and never speak of our suf- 
ferings, or our rights ? Would we desire them to smother their 
voice, and be exceedingly careful to say nothing to disturb those 
by whom we were abused and outraged ? Or, when exposed 
to some trifling harm, for asserting our rights, would we have 
them succumb to our oppressors, and leave us still to endure 
and groan under all our wrongs ? 

Would we not have them speak out, and tell the tale of our 



20 

woes in the ear of the world. Would we not have them pro- 
claim the guilt of our oppressors with trumpet tongue, and 
charge it home upon them ' in thoughts that glow, and words 
that burn ? ' Would we not have the guilty authors of our suf- 
ferings pointed forward to a day of righteous retribution, and 
reminded of the terrors of God's coming wrath, until their very 
ears should be stunned as with the thunderings of Sinai j and 
their hearts made to quake, at the rising flames of heaven's de- 
served indignation ? And especially, if our oppressors claimed 
affinity with Jesus Christ, and sought the sanctions of his relig- 
ion for their doings, would we not have them shown in char- 
acters of noonday light, that Christ had no fellowship with such 
deeds of darkness, and that his followers could not own as 
brethren, the perpetrators of such cruel wrongs ? What less 
than this could we ask, while enduring all the sufferings of the 
poor slave — of those who knew our condition, and were enjoy- 
ing the rights of men ? How can he love his neighbor as him- 
self, how can he do as he would have others do to him, who 
knows the sufferings of the slave, and yet will not open a mouth 
to assert liis rights? How can he be guiltless before God, who 
will not stand tbrth, in the name of humanity, and of the relig- 
ion of Jesus Christ, and claim to have the oppressed go free ? 
Among these oppressed ones are not a few of the humble disci- 
ples of Jesus. Though the key of knowledge has been kept 
from them, they have by some means learned so much of Christ, 
as to look to him for life. If these are neglected in their woes, 
if those who know their sufferings, will not come forth to their 
relief, will not Christ say, ' Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of 
the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me.' 

I know, it is said, that we make the condition of the slave 
the worse, by asserting his rights ; but of this I have no fears. 
It may be so in some cases, but as a general thing, there will be 



21 

an effort made to show that the cruelties of slavery are not whai 
they have been claimed to be. The conduct of the slavehold- 
er is open to inspection. He knows that what he now does will 
go before the world, and he will therefore beware — and the con- 
dition of the slave will, in a measure, be ameliorated. 

The voice of every freeman, and especially, of every free 
American, should rise on every gale, until a voice like that of 
many waters shall go round the earth, demanding liberty, liber- 
ty, for all that are oppressed. And if there be a professing 
Christian, who seeth his oppressed and suffering ' brother have 
need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion, how dwelleth 
the love of God in him? ' 

7. If God has created all men equal, then he who strips an- 
other of his rights, or withholds them from him after they have 

been taken away, is is what ? I would not call names 

unjustly. Let us look, and see what he is. Walking at the 
close of day, I meet a man returning from his labor, having in 
his pocket a few shillings which he has that day earned. Of 
these few shillings I rob him. I am taken, tried, condemned, 
and sentenced to State's prison, perhaps for ten years, perhaps 
for life, perhaps handed over to the hangman. But there is my 
neighbor, a few miles off, who has been robbing ten or twenty 
or a hundred men of all their earnings, during their whole lives 
— and he not only goes unpunished, but is justified in his doings 
by the laws of the land. O, justice ! whither art thou fled ? 
Is not that a guiltier man than myself? A man steals ten dol- 
lars of my property, a loss which I do not feel, and he is pun- 
ished for it according to law.* But there is another, who steals 



* The following facts were related, in my hearing, liya man of color from one of the 
Southern States. This man has, by some means, purchased his own freedom and that 
ofhiswife ; but his children, severalof them, have been taken away from him, and sold, 
lie knows not where. He proves himself to the satisfaction of all who have intercourse 



22 

my children from my arms, and my wife out of my bosom, and 
there is no law to touch him. (I say mine — for the man who 
should inflict such injuries upon me, could be no more guilty 
in the sight of God, than he who inflicts them on my 
brother of a darker skin.) He steals from me, also, ev- 
ery right of manhood, which my Maker gave me, and chains 
me up with the cattle in his stall. ' He who steals my purse, 
steals trash ' — but he who steals my wife, my children, and my- 
self, and dooms us all to a servitude, ending only with death ; and 
steals the Bible out of my hands, and shuts away the news of 
salvation from my ears, after robbing me of all the means of 
knowledge on earth : what shall I say of him ? I say he is 
a thief and a robber ; the worst thief, and the worst robber upon 
which the sun has ever shone since God hung it in the heavens. 



with him, to be a humble disciple of Jesus. I will give the facts, as nearly as possible, in 
his own words : — 

' I had a little boy, about eleven years old. One night as he came home, he said to me, 
' father, the constable has been measuring me to day.' 'Measuring you,' said I, 
* what does that mean %' 'I don't know,' he said. ' He measured me about my body, 
and then he measured how high I was. I am afraiiJ, father, they are going to sell me.' 
' I tried,' said the poor father, 'not to think of it, but the next morning, soon after 1 
went to my work, a little boy came running up to me, crying out, ' John is gone, yonder 
they are taking him off' now. I went after them, and when I came near, my dear babe 
reached out his hands to me, and said, ' Father, I 'm gone — can't you do something for 
me.' At this, the man who was taking him away, gave him a kick, and kicked him 
along the road, andl have not seen my dear child, or heard of him, from that day to this. 
I could do nothing to help him. It hurts me to think of it.' Here he wept. Never 
in my life has my heart been so agonized at any deed of man, as when I heard this grey- 
headed father give this simple relation. ' I had a daughter also,' said the poor old man, 
' who was married, and had one child. One day a carriage drove up to the door, and 
took her in with her child, and carried them on board a vessel then lying at the wharf, 
about to sail. As soon as I heard of it, I went after them. When I went to go on 
board, they pushed me back — but some one standing by, said, ' that's too bad — let the 
old man see his daughter.' I then went on board, and my poor child threw her arms 
about my neck, and said, ' Father, I 'm gone.' Here the old man's sobs prevented his 
utterance, but he recovered himself sufficiently to say, ' I have not seen or heard of my 
child since. Her husband heard of it, and went to the vessel, but they drew a dirk 
upon him, and would not allow him to go aboard.' ' Oh ! ' said the old man, as the tears 
streamed from his eyes, ' it hurts me, every time I think of it.' Probably, it 
would hurt a slaveholder to suffer such wrongs, and the best of them could be no more 



23 

Oh ! let that man hold his peace who can, on such a subject 
as this. But it seems to me, that every heart which has a spark 
of humanity in it, must glow ; and, that every bosom that has 
been warmed with the benevolent religion of Christ, must burn 
with desire to see the slave delivered from his ivrongs. 

But, perhaps, we are still called on for a plan, for benefiting 
the slave. You complain, say some, of everything which has 
hitherto been done for promoting the good of the slave, show 
us now a better way ? This is easily done. Let every slave- 
holder in the land call those around him whom he has hitherto 
held in bondage, and say to them, ' henceforth you are free. 
I have hitherto regarded you as my property ; from this time, I 
relinquish all such claim, and give up to you the entire control 
of yourselves. In time past, I have appropriated all your earn- 
ings to my own use — if you will now work for me, I will pay 
you reasonable wages, and teach you how to use your earnings 
for your own benefit. In time past, you have been kept in ig- 



injured by them tlian this poor disciple of Christ. This man has, if (I recollect the 
number,) six children sold into hopeless servitude, he knows not where. Three remain- 
ed with him, and these, some months ago, were bought up by a notorious firm of slave- 
dealers, and shipped for the Southern market. Here the old man felt that he had lost 
liis all; and the distress of his wife, ' who wept,' to use his language, ' as though her 
heart would burst,' drove him with great reluctance, after endeavoring to put his trust 
in God, to state his case to some pious friends, and ask if something could not be done 
for him. A minister of the gospel, who was affected to tears at the old man's recital, 
went to the slave dealers and interceded for him. They at length consented, that if 
the poor father himself could raise the money in one week, (amounting to considerable 
more than two thousand dollars) he might have his own children, i. e. the ones last taken 
away. Perhaps they considered the question settled, as they would consent to no 
other conditions, and regarded it as impossible for the father to do as they proposed. 
He lifted his cries to God, however, and they were heard, and friends raised up, who 
gave him some few hundred dollars, and at length, made him a loan of what remain- 
ed, amounting to eighteen hundred, on condition that it should be paid in two 
years. If at that time it remains unpaid, the children are to be sold to pay it. The 
poor father is now, with much diffidence, and great embarrassment, stating his case to 
to the pious and benevolent, and asking their aid,thathis children may not again be sold 
into bondage. If any heart is opened by this statement, to do any thing for him, infor- 
mation can be obtained respecting him at the Anti-Slavery Office in this city, or by 
addressing a line to the writer of this. 



24 

norance — henceforth you shall have the opportunity of acquiring 
knowledge, and of rising to respectability among men. Hith- 
erto all your rights have been taken away, but henceforth you 
shall be treated as men — the relations of life shall be regarded 
among you, and your wives and children no more torn from your 
arms. You shall have the Bible and the gospel, and all the 
means of learning the way to heaven. In time past, I have 
been your oppressor ; henceforth I am your friend ; and it shall 
be my endeavor, by my subsequent course of conduct, to efiace 
from your minds, all impression of the wrongs which I have hith- 
erto done you.' 

Now, who will say, that it would not be right for the slave- 
holder to pursue this course — and if right, then he is bound to 
pursue it, because the opposite is wrong. 

But, perhaps, it will be said, that though all this looks very 
well in theory, there is no hope of seeing it reduced to practice. 
For myself, IbeHeve that what ought to be done, maybe done. I 
have confidence in the power of truth ; and especially, when I 
reflect, that God, with all the vast resources of wisdom and pow- 
er, which he can command, is on the side of truth — I have hope, 
I have strong confidence, that truth will prevail; and that the 
slave, with unfettered limbs, will, ere long, walk forth in the dig- 
nity of manhood, and spread forth his hands to heaven, and lift 
up his voice and his heart to the God who made him, and render 
praise that he is free. 

But, it may still be said, that it is not to be expected, that the 
man whose whole property consists in slaves, will relinquish all, 
and make himself a beggar. If he has no property but what 
consists in slaves, then he is a beggar now ; — as really and truly 
a pauper as can be found in any alms-house in the United States. 
He is just as dependent on what belongs to others, as though he 
were obliged to beg his bread from door to door ; and is in a con- 



25 

dition unspcalcfilJij more disgraceful. He has no more property, 
than he woukl have, by laying claim to five hundred or a thou- 
sand acres of blue sky. All that can be said in truth, is, that 
in c onscquence of the existence of certain barbarous laws, he 
has it in his power to deprive a number of his fellow-men of their 
rights; and the power thus secured to him, of inflicting wrong 
and outrage, he calls property ! Shame, on the civilized man, 
that will urge such a claim as this ! shame, ten thousand times, 
on the civilized community, where such a thing is tolerat- 
ed ! and let the whole world point, and raise the cry of SHAjME, 
against a nation of freemen, who will seal their lips in silence, 
and see ticenty-Jive hundred thousand of the natives of their 
own soil thus claimed as the property of man. For myself, I 
believe that the day will come — Heaven speed it — when every 
American will feel his cheek mantled with the deep blush of 
shame, before the eye of the world, when he thinks that so foul a 
blot was ever seen upon his nation's character. I believe that it 
is to be expected, that he who has no property, but in the pow- 
er secured to him by unrighteous laws, of depriving his fellow- 
men of their rights, will be ashamed to urge a claim so inhuman, 
and will rather glory in regarding himself and in having the whole 
world regard him as pennyless. I believe he can be made to see 
and feel, that it is injinitely beneath the dignity of a man, to 
subsist by trampling his fellow-man under foot, and to enjoy an 
ease, purchased for him by the toils, and tears, and groans, and 
heart-broken sighs, of oppressed and suffering humanity. 

Again, it may be asked, what hope is there of doing away this 
mighty evil, and of procuring for the slave the enjoyment of his 
rights, by all this angry discussion at the North. I advocate no 
such thing as angry discussion on this subject, but I am W'holly 
unwilling to admit, that telling the truth — the whole truth, and 

telling it plainly and fully, and fearlessly, is angry discussion — if 
4 



26 

so— it seems that Christ and his apostles were often guihy of thl^ 
sin. I believe there is no way, by which to show our love for 
Southern men, but to show them their guilt — and show them 
the whole — to hold it all up before them, and let them see just 
how black it is. It is the purest kindness toward them to do 
it, and the only course we can pursue toward them which is 
truly kind. There are men of conscience among them, and men 
of piety, and though these may for a while resist the truth, we 
do expect, that eventually, they will feel and acknowledge its 
force, and be ready to abide the consequences of acting in con- 
formity with truth. This done, others seeing the light that is 
shed around them, will make truth their rule of life, and thus, 
at length, come up to their duty. We do not expect at pres- 
ent, to demand the abolition of slavery, in the name of human 
law — but we do expect to demand it in the name of humanity, 
and of God, and to urge our demand, until, by the blessing of 
Heaven, we win the day. We do expect to lay the truth be- 
fore the minds ofmen, and to urge it, and pray for its success, until 
it shall be made mightier than the strong man armed ; and until 
every obstacle shall give way before its onward march, and all 
who now oppose, be made, either willingly, or unwillingly, to 
yield to its demands. We expect it, not through our own 
wisdom or strength, but through the might of Him who has the 
prerogative to make, and the power to enforce obedience to 
the command, ' that the oppressed go free.' He has once called 
in the aid of thunder and lightning, and storm ; of darkness, and 
disease, and death ; of the frogs and the locusts, and the mighty 
waves of the sea, to work deliverance for the captive : and he 
has the same resources still, and can command them when he 
please. Let such, therefore, as feel for the sufferings of the 
enslaved, make God their hope ; and truth, and light, and love, 
their weapons ; and complete victory their aim ; and death the 



27 

only point at which they will lay down their armor ; and the 
time will come, when the whole earth shall be vocal with the 
song of deliverance, and when their hearts shall have the joy, 
and God the praise, of a whole world, disenthralled, and walk- 
ing forth alike gladsome and free, to enjoy the rights which 
Heaven gives to all. Who is there, that carries the heart of a 
man within him, that will not do something to bring about such 
a day ? Or, who is there, that bows the knee in prayer, who 
will not say, in the fervency of his soul, ' Hasten it, Oh, 
Lord!' 



AT THE PINE ST. CHURCH, BOSTON, 



JUI.Y 4, 1836. 



®s.s)i^ii?. ©IF ^-i.m^<ssmmma 



I. 



HYMN. I. 



Hail to the Lord's Annointed ? 

Great David's greater Son ; 
Hail in the time appointed, 

His reign on earth begun: 
He comes to break oppression. 

To set the Captive Free ; 
To take away transgression. 

And rule in Ecjuity. 

He comes with succor speedy. 

To those who suffer wrong; 
To help the poor and needy. 

And bid the weak be strong; 
To give them songs for sighing, 

Their darkness turned to light. 
Whose souls condemned and dying. 

Were precious in his sight. 

He shall come down like showers 

Upon the fruitful earth. 
And love, and joy, like flowers. 

Spring in his path to birth: 
Before Him, on the mountains. 

Shall peace, the herald, go. 
And righteousness, in fountains. 

From hill to valley flow. 

To him shall prayer unceasing, 

And daily vows ascend; 
His kingdom still increasing, 

A kingdom without end : 
The tide of time shall never 

His Covenant remove ; 
His name shall stand forever; 

That name to us is — Love. 



IL PRAYER. 



III. 



HYMN II. 



Thou God, who hast since time begun ; 

The helper of the helpless been, 
Who will correct the tyrant, man. 

That dares against thy mercy sin; 

IVe pray for Slaves! to whom thy Word 
Of light and Love is never given; 

For those whose ears have never heard 
The promise and the hope of Heaven. 

The broken heart and darken 'd mind. 
Whereon no human mercies fall, 

Oh ! be thy gracious love inclined. 
Who as a father pitiest all. 



And grant, oh, Father! that ihe time 
Of earth's deliverance may be near; 

When every land, and tongue, and clime. 
The message of thy love shall hear: 

When smitten as with fire from Heaven, 
The Captive's chain shall melt in dust. 

And to his fettered soul be given 
The glorious Freedom of the Just. 

IV. READING THE DECLARA- 
TION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

V. ADDRESS. 

VI. COLLECTION. 



VII. 



HYMN III. 



With thy pure dews and rains. 
Wash out, O God, the stains 

From Afric's shore; 
And, ■v\hile her palm trees bud. 
Let not her children's blood 
With her broad Niger's flood 

Be mingled more ! 

Quench, righteous God, the thirst 
That Congo's sons hath cursed — 

The thirst for gold ! 
Shall not thy thunders speak. 
Where ftlanimon's altars reek. 
Where maids and Matrons shriek. 

Bound, bleeding, sold "? 

Hear'st thou, O God, those chains. 
Clanking on Freedom's plains, 

By Christians wrought ! 
Them who those chains have worn. 
Christians from home have torn. 
Christians have hither borne, 

Christians have bought ! 

Cast down, great God, the fanes. 
That, to unhallowed gains. 

Round us have risen — 
Temples, whose priesthood pore 

Moses and Jesus o'er. 
Then bolt the black man's door. 

The poor man's prison ! 

Wilt thou not, Lord, at last. 
From thine own image cast 

Away all cords, • 
But that of love, which brings 
Man from his wanderings p, 

Back to the King of kings, ^ 

The Lord of lords ! * 

VII. BENEDICTION. 















''^0^ 



A 9^ 









»^^'% 



'-^__ C^^C:^. ^o 



-•/ -t.^ •^<^ .^i««^, .V ^ 












■%c,^ 
































• ■ 













>^ *^- 






